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Mottke, the Thief
Translated from the Yiddish Mottke Ganef, this is a realistic novel about a Jewish village in Poland and the underworld of Warsaw in the early 20th century.
314 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1916
About the author
Sholem Asch
258 books38 followersPolish-American writer Sholem Asch (also written Shalom Ash, Yiddish: שלום אַש, Polish: Szalom Asz) sought to reconcile Judaism and Christianity in his controversial novels, such as
The Nazarene
(1939). Sholem Asch composed dramas and essays in the Yiddish language.
Frajda Malka bore Asch and nine other children to Moszek Asz, a cattle-dealer and innkeeper. Asch received a traditional Hasidic eduction and later obtained a more liberal education at Włocławek, where he supported himself by writing letters for the illiterate townspeople. He moved to Warsaw and met and married Mathilde Shapiro, the daughter of Menahem Mendel Shapiro.
The Haskalah or Hebrew enlightenment initially influenced Asch. His earliest writing was in Hebrew, but Isaac Leib Peretz convinced him to switch to Yiddish. The plot of God of Vengeance , his drama of 1907. features a lesbian relationship in a brothel. He traveled to Palestine in 1908 and to the United States in 1910, finally emigrating to the latter in 1914. He sat out World War I in the United States and was naturalized as a citizen in 1920.
His Kiddush ha-Shem (1919), one of the earliest historical novels in modern Yiddish literature, concerns the anti-Semitic uprising of Khmelnytsky in mid-17th century Ukraine. In 1920, in honor of his 40th birthday, a committee of his fans published a 12-volume set of his collected works (up to that time).
When his play God of Vengeance was performed on Broadway in 1923, authorities arrested and successfully prosecuted the entire cast on obscenity charges. (However, the convictions were overturned on appeal.) But in Europe, the play was popular was popular enough to be translated into German, Polish, Russian, Hebrew, Italian, Czech, Romanian, and Norwegian.
His trilogy Farn Mabul or Before the Flood , translated into English as Three Cities 1929-31), describes early 20th century Jewish life in Saint Petersburg, Warsaw, and Moscow. In 1932, the republic of Poland awarded him the decoration of Polonia Restituta, and in the same year he was elected honorary president of the Yiddish PEN Club.
He later moved to France and visited Palestine again in 1936. His Dos Gezang fun Tol ( The Song of the Valley ), about the halutzim or Zionist pioneers in Palestine, reflects that visit. His next work, Bayrn Opgrunt (1937), translated into English as The Precipice , is set in Germany during the hyperinflation of the 1920s. In 1939, he returned to the United States.
His trilogy The Apostle (1939), The Nazarene (1943) and Mary (1949), which dealt with figures from the New Testament, offended many Jews. The Forward , the leading Yiddish language newspaper of New York, dropped him as a writer and openly attacked him for supposedly promoting Christianity.
Asch spent most his last two years in Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, Israel but died in London. His house in Bat Yam now houses his namesake museum. Yale University holds the bulk of his library, which contains rare books and manuscripts, including some of his own works.
Frajda Malka bore Asch and nine other children to Moszek Asz, a cattle-dealer and innkeeper. Asch received a traditional Hasidic eduction and later obtained a more liberal education at Włocławek, where he supported himself by writing letters for the illiterate townspeople. He moved to Warsaw and met and married Mathilde Shapiro, the daughter of Menahem Mendel Shapiro.
The Haskalah or Hebrew enlightenment initially influenced Asch. His earliest writing was in Hebrew, but Isaac Leib Peretz convinced him to switch to Yiddish. The plot of God of Vengeance , his drama of 1907. features a lesbian relationship in a brothel. He traveled to Palestine in 1908 and to the United States in 1910, finally emigrating to the latter in 1914. He sat out World War I in the United States and was naturalized as a citizen in 1920.
His Kiddush ha-Shem (1919), one of the earliest historical novels in modern Yiddish literature, concerns the anti-Semitic uprising of Khmelnytsky in mid-17th century Ukraine. In 1920, in honor of his 40th birthday, a committee of his fans published a 12-volume set of his collected works (up to that time).
When his play God of Vengeance was performed on Broadway in 1923, authorities arrested and successfully prosecuted the entire cast on obscenity charges. (However, the convictions were overturned on appeal.) But in Europe, the play was popular was popular enough to be translated into German, Polish, Russian, Hebrew, Italian, Czech, Romanian, and Norwegian.
His trilogy Farn Mabul or Before the Flood , translated into English as Three Cities 1929-31), describes early 20th century Jewish life in Saint Petersburg, Warsaw, and Moscow. In 1932, the republic of Poland awarded him the decoration of Polonia Restituta, and in the same year he was elected honorary president of the Yiddish PEN Club.
He later moved to France and visited Palestine again in 1936. His Dos Gezang fun Tol ( The Song of the Valley ), about the halutzim or Zionist pioneers in Palestine, reflects that visit. His next work, Bayrn Opgrunt (1937), translated into English as The Precipice , is set in Germany during the hyperinflation of the 1920s. In 1939, he returned to the United States.
His trilogy The Apostle (1939), The Nazarene (1943) and Mary (1949), which dealt with figures from the New Testament, offended many Jews. The Forward , the leading Yiddish language newspaper of New York, dropped him as a writer and openly attacked him for supposedly promoting Christianity.
Asch spent most his last two years in Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, Israel but died in London. His house in Bat Yam now houses his namesake museum. Yale University holds the bulk of his library, which contains rare books and manuscripts, including some of his own works.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 14, 2019
Z jidiš literatury se u nás dostal do povědomí nanejvýš tak Singer, z jeho rozsáhlého díla toho u nás vyšlo myslím skoro všechno a to i ve velmi kvalitních překladech (Přidal), které byly ovšem pořizovány z anglických překladů. Od Singerova laskavého a melancholického pohledu na ztracené štetly a ghetta se však Ašův svět aškenázského Polska (resp. Ruska té doby) výrazně odlišuje. Pokud je tato novela Bildungsroman, tak co zejména buduje hrdinův charakter je krutost, tmářství a bída těch samých lidí a míst, které např. Singer poetizuje daleko smířlivěji. Singer samosebou nebyl naivní idealista a jeho příběhy obsahují častokrát také nemalou porci neštěstí, na druhou stranu je to spíše Aš, kdo uměle zvětšuje kontrast fabule, aby zvýšil účinek závěrečné pointy. Přesto jeho nesmlouvavý a naturalistický popis všudypřítomného násilí a přirozenosti se kterou je tolerováno, ba legitimizováno, mohl by u nějaké citlivější duše vyvolat až představu jakéhosi židovského antisemitismu, protože žádný z hrdinů nakonec nedopadne příliš lichotivě. To by byl však hrubý omyl, protože jidiš prostředí je zde jen zaměnitelnou kulisou, Ašovi nejde o vykonstruování "exotického" příběhu (prostředí košer jatek, židovských cirkusáků nebo bordelů), ale o jistou sociální kritiku resp. obecnější morální experiment. Proto také jeho odkaz převyšuje spoustu jiných skutečně zapomenutých jidiš autorů. Motke je determinován od narození opakovaně špatnou zkušeností, aby přežil uplatňuje zvířecí pragmatismus a díky němu získá nezávislost. To co jej srazí nakonec na kolena je snaha o návrat k lidskosti, když okolí nedokáže překlenout propast mezi jeho násilnou minulostí a upřímně míněnou lítostí, nutkáním napravit se. Opravdu je to jako pointa židovské anekdoty, dokud páše Motke zlo, všechno se mu daří a vede bezstarostný život za jedinou cenu, jeho život mu vlastně nepatří, byl stvořen jinými, byl do něj zavlečen okolnostmi (hlavním symbolem je tu cizí identita Kanarikova), jakmile se cítí dost silný na to, aby se domohl uspokojení své možná naivní touhy po klidném rodinném krbu mimo podsvětí a s čistýma rukama, okamžitě jej osud definitivně klepne přes prsty. Existují potom minimálně dvě interpretace, které autor nikde neprotlačuje, je to čtenář, kdo musí napsat svůj vlastní komentář, svůj vlastní morální midraš. První je "tradiční", za zločin musí přijít trest, ať už to myslel hrdina jakkoliv, ať se kál sebevíc, ať za jeho zkažený názor mohli třeba druzí. Druhá, pokud bychom přijali předem ustavenou hypotézu o sociálním determinismu (přijmout ji můžeme bez ohledu na platnost takových nároků ve skutečnosti, neboť jde o hypotézu fikčního světa), vyznívá milosrdněji a zloděj Motke sice nemusí získat naše sympatie, nicméně jeho jednání by bylo po celou dobu, alespoň z jeho perspektivy ospravedlnitelné, což nemusí nutně vést k morálnímu relativismu, pokud bychom předpokládali přirozené právo každého člověka na uspokojení jeho potřeb, byť za cenu zločinu. Taková otázka není náhodná, protože se Aš snažil nějakým způsobem vyrovnat se s revolučním socialismem. Nemá chudák vlastně právo krást? Naštěstí všechny tyto otázky a interpretace jsou v příběhu implicitní, neruší literární kvalitu a v tom se Aš ukazuje jako opravdu skvělý spisovatel, protože nabízí inspirativní příběh - nikoli laciné politické teze. Přes veškerou krutost a její naturalistické popisy, zůstává text neobyčejným způsobem poetický. Je tu cítit radost z vyprávění, lehkost a nadsázku typické pro daný žánr (pokud je jidiš román vůbec nějaký žánr). Pro milovníky zapomenutého světa východoevropské diaspory nelze než doporučit, zvlášť pokud si tento svět trochu zbytečně romantizují.
July 8, 2013
jUST FOUND THIS BOOK IN AT A FLEA MARKET AND SAW THE TOPIC WAS A JEWISH FAMILY IN POLAND EARLY 20TH CENTURY. THE MAIN CHARACTER BEING MOTTKE THE THIEF , COVERING HIS BIRTH UP TO HIS 25th YEAR. AND HE LIVED A LONG LIFE IN THOSE YEARS. A CHARACTER LIKE NONE OTHER I HAVE EVER READ. WONDERFUL, INTERESTING, COMPLEX, SIMPLE AND UNPREDICTABLE. STARTED READING 11AM AND COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN UNTIL FINISHED 9PM. WILL GO INTO MY MOST FAVORITE OF ALL TIME. I AM GOING ON LINE NOW TO FIND MORE OF THIS AUTHORS WORKS.
December 13, 2016
After starting slow... It finished with a bang. Thoroughly enjoyed it
January 10, 2024
Me gustó. Una historia trágica de un muchacho judío a la que la vida no ha tratado bien. El amor no pudo redimirlo.
November 22, 2025
Me dio mucha alegría encontrar este libro a buen precio, lástima que tiene la tapa totalmente destrozada.
January 6, 2015
Interesting enough and characteristic of Asch's bawdy and controversial (at the time) subjects, but it seemed rushed and disjointed, with a horrible non-ending.
March 28, 2018
A remarkably strange plot told with moments of absolute brilliance. Asch knows how to just punch you in the gut out of nowhere. Starts a bit slow, and features a creepy child-strangling scene (???) but feels like a Victor Hugo epic with less fluff. An interesting read.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews